Luckily, we still have one more hour of this beautiful drama left -- but in the meantime, let's celebrate Elizabeth's double triumph.

The word of the evening was pride: how it can destroy a nation or even a world and how true leaders refuse to hold onto it.

The Chinese President's pride might have resulted in a nuclear war if Elizabeth hadn't been so willing to sacrifice hers to achieve diplomacy.

Elizabeth: So the attack came from a rogue commander. That means that President Lee doesn't want to escalate this conflict any more than I do.Chen: His pride will not allow him to back down. It is a matter of honor, especially because you are a woman.Elizabeth: So he'd rather blow up the world than bow to a girl?

Elizabeth's insistence on finding a diplomatic solution came as no surprise to long-term viewers.

It was exactly how she operated when she was Secretary of State: tough when she needed to be but refusing to engage in armed conflict unless it was absolutely necessary.

But with her military advisors, her chief of staff, and her own Secretary of State all firmly in the camp of needing to show a greater display of force to send China a message, how many Presidents would have had the guts to try diplomacy anyway?

Everyone else's position was logical. China was being aggressive and causing trouble, and bullies back down when a greater force opposes them.

Bombing China's nuclear sites would have sent a strong message and neutralized their nuclear capabilities, but at what cost?

Even if the threat of nuclear war could have been averted, China and the US might have entered a new Cold War.

US allies didn't fully approve of this operation, so if there was a long-standing conflict, it's not clear whose side they would have taken.

Elizabeth chose the harder path: trying to avert the crisis without resorting to war, nuclear or otherwise.

And her solution required allowing the US to look like the loser -- something that might not have sat well with all Americans, especially if the news spun this as Elizabeth failing to protect our reputation.

Elizabeth: I want to speak with President Lee.Military advisor: With all due respect, ma'am, actions speak louder than words.Elizabeth: I will not engage in retaliatory action without a dialogue. Until further notice, this is a rescue mission.

Elizabeth's choice was more than a choice between war and diplomacy. It was a choice between pride and sacrifice for the greater good, and she chose sacrifice.

Congressman Heeney also had a choice to make.

During the impeachment hearings, he had stayed silent because he wanted to preserve his own political career.

His explanation didn't make much sense.

This nonsense all started because Hanson equated Elizabeth's pro-worker policies with non-democratic socialism, so how exactly was he advocating for the working class by going along with Canning's attempt to undermine her administration?

Henry: He who accepts injustice welcomes it into his own house.Heeney: You can quote Scripture to me all you want, but it's not going to change my mind.Henry: That's not Scripture. That's your father.

That's how these things usually work, but it didn't matter that it was predictable because of the strength of Heeney's rebuke of Canning.

He was right that Canning's attack seemed to be on reality itself.

Canning's rantings were getting more and more delusional, and nobody sane would believe that Elizabeth faked the entire crisis to interfere with the impeachment.

She chose to testify rather than invoke executive privilege. If she wanted to interfere with the proceedings, surely tying the courts up with whether she could be compelled to testify would have been easier than faking an international crisis.

Either way, that final scene of millions of people declaring that Elizabeth is their President would have made a perfect ending to the series. As it is, it looks like the final episode will simply wrap up loose ends.

Speaking of which, that double proposal plan was all sorts of cute, and just the lighthearted, normal story we needed to offset the world on the brink of nuclear war.

Dmitri: With your permission, I'd like to ask Stephanie to marry me.Henry: Oh my God! But you don't have to ask me.Dmitri: Oh, I should ask the President?Henry: No, you don't need to ask either of us. Stevie is an adult.

Mike: So Beijing seized on a political gray area to shoot at Russian efforts? That's not exactly shocking.Thompson: True, but surveillance video shows Chinese military buildups on one island in particular: Han un Dou.Russell: Even saying the name breaks the spell.Elizabeth: So basically just another beautiful day in the neighborhood.